Chiang Mai, Thailand

We lifted SeaWolff onto the hard in Phuket and have closed her up for a season.

Today we flew inland to Chiang Mai, which is a 2 hour flight from Phuket to the North of Thailand. It was founded in the 13th century and is located in a fertile valley.

We were collected from the airport in a open cab.
Then this weird car passed us.

 Next we walked around the old city streets and went for a wonderful 1 hour oil massage for 200 baht (R50).
There are 300 Budist Temples here and we passed this one with its huge elephant statues around the base.

Outside the walls of the temple was a lady selling fish, they where being dried on a fire. I think they were covered with salt.

We are with-in the old walled section of the city. Most of the wall has gone but the moat is still there.
This is a really charming place. We had supper on a river boat on the Mae Ping River which is wide and runs through the city. The river has many restaurants and walks along its banks, very romantic.

Making chocolates

'Les Anges' a restaurant in our marina held a 'chocolate making' course on Friday. First we had to stir the melted milk chocolate and add some dark chocolate until the temp came down to 31C. Quite tiring. Note the 'gun' for measuring temp, you just point it and it gives a reading.

Here she is painting a thin layer of a red coloured, white chocolate onto the plastic mould. After 5 min in the fridge we then added a thin layer of white chocolate. After another 5 min in the fridge we filled them with a raspberry and chili cream paste and covered that with white chocolate. Back in the fridge to set.

These little spheres are purchased pre-made, we filled them with milk chocolate, and after 5 min in the fridge we dropped them into melted chocolate, picked them up and rolled them on a wire rack making a rough finish.

So these were my creations, the red one is the chili flavour, I wanted to take a photo of the inside....but its been eaten! too yummy.
The angel was made with melted chocolate poured into a silicon mould, amazing detail that can be achieved. Still need some practice as there are bubbles present.

Khao Sok National Park

Our accommodation at Khao Sok Paradise Resort, was a wooden room in a tree. It was almost like sleeping in a tent, as we left all the windows open at night and kept the mosquito/bug net over us. We could hear the bugs and even had fireflies in the room. The bathroom was interesting. The shower on the right wall is the conventional one, but the water could also come out of the tree branch. There was a hole in the roof too, so if it rained you could shower in the rain!
We had a resident frog that caught the ants that came in for the water. A really cool place to stay near the entrance to the park. Great food too.

 Our walk into the park was interesting. There are no roads in the park so hiking into the jungle or walking along the river are your choices. We took the path to the closest waterfall, 3 hours there and back. We did not get there, its very hot and humid and we had an enemy we gave in to eventually....The Common Leech! Its not a painful bite but due to the anti-coagulant it injects, the wound does not stop bleeding for ages. After one bite between the toes, my foot looked as if I had been stabbed. Its not easy to get them off either. They suck your blood and expand quickly eventually falling off.
I stopped for a second to get a photo, the Leech is about 5 cm long here and has suckers on both ends with 3 saw like teeth on one end. They sense heat so as soon as you stop they are on you!

Before we gave up the 'battle in the Jungle' we did get to see some of its treasures. This fern had blue edged leaves and the Mushrooms were really pretty.

This is a very old tropical rain forrest and I think it would be really interesting to do one of the long hikes deeper into it. 

The best for me was hearing the Gibbon apes 'singing' in the mornings. The species here is the Lar Gibbon or 'white handed' Gibbon. They live high up in the top canopies of the forrest. Its wonderful to know that they are still living here and not yet extinct.

Slow river rafting

On our way back to our accommodation we took a little road to what was called 'river rafting' Well that's just what it was, a bamboo raft on the river. Its the dry season now so the rivers are very low. These were our rafts.

We had a 'driver' who pushed us along the shallow river. Their dog 'Dam' (Thai for black) joined us and happily stood on the raft. On the right where high cliffs with caves in them. 

The rafters stopped at a cave for tea. They boiled water in a bamboo pole and gave us bamboo cups of tea. The way the locals used to do it. So simple.

On the way back to the raft Mercia sat in/on a Liana vine. They are huge vines that are prevalent in the forest/jungle.

Rachabrapah Dam

Rachabrapah dam wall was built in 1982 and it has created a huge lake (165 sq km) called Cheow Lan, which is in the Khao Sok National Park. It is used to generate hydro-electric power for the fast growing southern region of Thailand. Longtail boats take tourist deep into the lake to see the caves, go on hikes and see to the huge limestone outcrops of up to 960m.
The park grounds at the dam wall are well groomed with lots of lawn for all the New Year picnics. Its a large area including a few guest houses on the waterfront. It was a great spot to have an icecream!

Sa-wat-di pi-may Songkran, Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  Happy Songkran.  13 - 15 April.
Its April, its the hottest time of the year, its the end of the dry season and its new year!
This in Thailand is an excuse to throw water at everyone.
Traditionally its a family time, to visit your elders and bless the monks with scented water.
The traditional New Year is Lunar based and was at this time of year, but in 1940 Thailand decided to join the western world and start the year on 1 Jan. The traditional Thai year is 543 years older than the western world. It started when Buddha died.
So its year 2555 now and this is used in everyday life.

After leaving the somber memorials we looked for a place to eat lunch and got our first taste of Songkran.
We took our water guns with us and shot the restaurant staff. They then painted our faces with white liquid (we think it was cornflour and water).

Our waitress took our gun to shoot everyone herself and so we gave her (lady in the apron) a little gun when we left. She was thrilled. 

We booked into our tree house rooms at Khao Sok and the next day drove to the lake.

Well, we then got to see what Songkran is all about. There were pickups stocked with a big drum of water, the family and buckets. Then on the side of the road where families set up with a big drum of water, buckets, a hose pipe and water guns.

Basically every car or bike was doused in water. (often coloured with die or full of corn flower) The wonderful thing to watch was a sheer joy of it, everyone was laughing. The bakkies all slowed to alow time for the water fight.

This is a road side set up waiting for the car to pass so they can shoot each other. Note the white powder on the 'bakkie' (pickup)

This bakkie has 2 drums of water.

All age groups together having fun.

What you do when your drum is empty? The local water authority was filling drums from their water truck.

!

This chap has a water gun fed from a tank on his back!

Hiding, didn't help, she still got shot.

As we got closer to the dam the cars built up. They were all going there to picnic.

Here you can see the spray from Joe's gun hitting a little girl in the back. They always got a fright when we shot from the car as it was so unexpected. Our windows were closed most of the time.

As the bakkies passed it was a free for all.

We had a wonderful time interacting and shot everyone we could. Even the store keepers, they said thankyou, as its a blessing, nothing to get cross about. 

Mercia with her 'weapon'

Tsunami 2004 memorial

Together with friends Joe and Mercia we decided to go North to the Khao Sok National Park.
We took the coastal route and at Khao Lak stopped to see the 'Police patrol boat 813' that was washed 2 km inland by the 2004 Tsunami. The boat was left where it landed and is now being incorporated into a large memorial. The second photo is taken from the notice board there, this is what the site looked like after the devastating wave. This area was the worst hit with about 3900 deaths of the total for Thailand of about 5400.

At bit further North is a small fishing village Ban Khem, with this dramatic memorial. Its a wall shaped as a wave on one side and a wall with names of the dead on the other. The photos of the aftermath are so sad, the magnitude of the devastation is not easy to even imagine.

A fishing boat left where it landed amongst some houses, 1 km inland.